Publications: #56

56. "Thermoreversible Gelcasting: A Novel Ceramic Processing Technique" Montgomery, J.K.; Drzal, P.L.; Shull, K.R.; Faber, K.T., J. Amer. Ceramic Soc., 85, 1164 (2002).

A new ceramic processing method, thermoreversible gelcasting (TRG) has been developed. This method uses a gelation process that can be reversed multiple times. Two alumina systems have been explored with the use of a specific triblock copolymer to form a binding gel network. The mixture becomes a free flowing liquid upon heating above 60 C. However , upon cooling below 60 C, the slurry instantaneously tranforms to a physical gel. This process can be reversed easily (essentially with an infinite processing time window) while the solvent is present in the system, which is advantageious when trying to produce high quality dense pieces if initial casting irregularities occur. Near theoretically dense specifments have been produced with properties consistent with reported values of high-density alumina.

Download published version (limited to Northwestern Community) (472 kB)